82 Mr. R. Spruce on the Musci and Hejmtica of the Pyrenees. 



Cryptogames recemment decouvertes en France/^ &c. Most of 

 these I have had the opportunity of examining. In 1835_, Dr. 

 Grateloup began to pubhsh in the 'Actes de la Societe Lin- 

 neenne de Bordeaux/ torn, vii., a " Cryptogamie TarbeUienne^ 

 ou Description succincte des Plantes cryptogames qui croissent 

 aux environs de Dax, dans le Dept. des Landes/' in which were 

 to be comprised all the Cryptogamia growing within 25 leagues 

 of Dax, a district which would include the extreme Western Py- 

 renees ; but it proceeded no farther than the publication of the 

 Characese, Filices and Hepaticse, for specimens of most of which I 

 am under obligation to Dr. Grateloup. About the year 1843, MM. 

 Philippe and de Lugo, two botanists residing at Bagneres-de- 

 Bigorre, began to collect the mosses and Hepaticae of the neigh- 

 bouring mountains, and on the occasion of my visit to that city, 

 two years afterwards, they put into my hands, without reserve, 

 specimens of all they had succeeded in finding. A few mosses 

 have also at difierent times been gathered in the Pyrenees by 

 MM. desMoulins, Durieu, Gaston-Sacaze, and probably by others 

 of whom I have not heard, and of whose labours I cannot there- 

 fore make that honourable mention which is their due. In 1845 

 came my own visit to the Pyrenees, undertaken principally 

 (though not solely) for the purpose of studying the Musci and 

 Hepaticae, and extending through a period of nearly eleven 

 months. It will not be without use if I here briefly retrace my 

 steps, as some repetition will be thereby avoided, and an oppor- 

 tunity will be afforded of indicating the position of certain loca- 

 lities, the names of which are of frequent recurrence in my cata- 

 logue, though too obscure to be found in an ordinary map*. 



I arrived at Pau, the chef-lieu of the Dept. of the Basses- 

 Pyrenees, and the ancient capital of Beam, in the early part of 

 May 1845, and my first herborization in the Pyrenees was made 

 on the 13th of the same month. My excursions comprised, be- 

 sides the woods, &c. adjoining the town of Pau, the villages of 

 Juran9on, Gelos, Rontignon and Narcastet, lying on the south- 

 ern bank of the Gave de Pau, with the valleys running up from 

 them to the southward, among what may be called the skirts of 

 the Pyrenees ; and the village of Bilheres, lying south of the same 

 river. From the 29th to the 31st were devoted to a visit to 

 Oloron, at the entrance of the Vallee d'Aspe, along which runs 

 one of the most frequented roads into Spain. On the 11th of 

 June I again left Pau for St. Sever, in the Landes, on a visit to 

 Dr. Leon Dufour, the eminent naturalist, where eight days were 

 usefully spent in exploring the neighbouring landes, especially 



* For a fuller account of my tour consult flic ' London Journal of Botany,' 

 vol. V. p. 104. 



